Senenmout and the courageous Hatshepsut

Senenmout, was not a noble, he came from a lower background, but he rose to become the man of the utmost importance during the reign of a very determined woman, a God's wife of Amun, who declared herself a pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, Queen Hatshepsut Maatkare ‘Foremost of Noble Ladies, Truth is the Soul of Re'  who ruled as the fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Hatshepsut was the favorite daughter of Tuthmosis 1, but on the walls of her mortuary temple, which was Senenmouts greatest achievement,  Hatshepsut asserted her birth to be divine, as she declared herself to be the daughter of the God Amun who announces on the temple walls  'Fashion for me the body of my daughter and the body of her Ka, a great queen shall I make of her'

After Hatshepsut was crowned pharaoh, Senenmut was given more prestigious titles and became high steward of the king, he was the 'Steward of the God's Wife' , he held many titles including Overseer of the Gardens of Amun', 'Steward of Amun', 'Overseer of all Royal Works' and 'Tutor to the Royal Heiress Neferure', 'Steward of the King's Daughter' (Neferure) Amazingly, during the rule of Hatshepsut Senenmout earned almost one hundred titles, including 'Great Treasurer of the Queen' he was an architect, an astronomer, and a very important government official. Hatshepsut became a Gods Wife of Amun, she knew how to obtain power and a position of strength, as this meant that she was the mortal wife of the God Amun, which is more important than to be the wife of a king

This statue expresses the strength and devotion and all encompassing protection that Senenmout offers the only daughter of Hatshepsut, the Princess Neferure.

Senenmout designed Hatshepsuts Mortuary Temple at Dier El Bahari, it was known as the Splendour of Splendours. This most magnificent mortuary temple  celebrates Hatshepsuts life, accomplishments, and her reign, it is  a masterpiece of architecture, the temple is  on three tiers, it is truly amazing  and is driven into the rock face at Dier El Bahari, the cliff face encloses it and  rises sharply above it. This temple is the  masterpiece of Senenmouts career.

             

It has colonnaded terraces with a row of tall Osiris statues of Hatshepsut that dominate the second teir and look down across the west Bank with her holding the crook and flail, signs of kingship, she is the shepard of her people, and will rule with strength. Apart from declaring Hatshepsut to be of divine birth it also records the first ever expedition to the Land of Punt, known to us as Somalia, it is an exotic country on the Red Sea coast, where  trees animals and incense for the temples were given by the Queen of Punt to Hatshepsut. The terraces of her temple are connected by long ramps which were once surrounded by gardens with frankincense and myrrh trees brought from Punt.

Senenmout was an astronomer and he created the temple axis to aligned to the winter solstice sunrise, when the sunlight penetrates through to the rear wall of the chapel, before moving to the right to highlight one of the Osiris statues that stand on either side of the doorway to the second chamber. Nine months later, at the autumn equinox, the Beautiful Feast of Opet would mark the pharaonic birth. As for the alignment of the 1st of February, it would be a marker of the date on which Amun-Ra pronounced the oracle that enthroned Hatshepsut as a female pharaoh.

Senenmout also  created a very large Red barque chapel for Hatshepsut, the chapel housed the barque to carry the God Amun to festivals from his earthly home at Karnack Temple. One festival was known as the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, and is  recorded on the wall of Hatshepsuts barque chapel, it shows Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis 111 escorting the barque of Amun across the river to make offerings in her mortuary temple that was in direct line with Karnack Temple.

Here was a queen who was obviously determined to transcend all the works of all previous kings and create the most beautiful and unusual gifts for Amun. I was not disappointed as I arrived at Hatshepsut’s creation the imposing barque chapel of Hatshepsut with its burning warm red bricks, in the open air museum inside the precints of Karnack Temple,  again Hatshepsut had deviated from the usual choice of Alabaster that previous kings had used for their barque chapels, it is believed that a sacred barque was used in a nightly journey of Amun Ra, traveling from the western horizon at sunset behind the earth to the eastern horizon where the sunrise would occur. as I looked at the chapel, it occurred  to me the symbolism of  why Hatshepsut had  possibly deviated from traditional materials and chosen  instead  to use this unusual red quartzite, it was simple,  a heart  of a man is a deep warm red, and it pumps the warm blood through the body and sustains the life, and this chapel was ‘The Heart of Amun.

Senenmut also supervised the quarrying, transport, and erection of twin obelisks, for Hatshepsut for  the Temple of Karnak,  the inscription written on the obelisk that stands inside Karnack Temple expresses hatshepsuts  devotion to Amon Ra: 'I have created this work with a heart full of love for Amon, Initiated into his secrets of origin, Instructed through his beneficial power, I have not forgotten what he has ordained, My Majesty recognizes his Divinity, I have acted on his orders, It is he who has guided me, I have never slept because I was pre-occupied with his temple, I have never turned away from what he has commanded, My heart moved intuitively with The Father, I have entered intimately into the plans of his heart, I have never turned my back on the Master of totality, But rather I have turned my face towards him. 

In Ancient Egypt an obelisk was known as a Tekenu, Hatshepsut wanted her creations to be superior to all other kings creations, so she created the tallest two obelisks in all Egypt, to rise in Karnack Temple.  The suns rays hit the pyramideon at the tip of the obelisk which is covered in electrum, a mixture of gold and silver,   and the power of the sun ignites the pyramiddion flashing down the sides of the obelisk, if two obelisks are stood together it would create a powerful force field at the entrance to a temple, this power offers regeneration, and the writing on the obelisk is regenerated and the words invoke the God Amun Ra and offer power to Hatshepsut 

Hatshepsut recognized that true power came from devotion to Amun Ra, she became a God's wife of amun, which meant that she was the mortal wife of the God Amun. Egyptian temples were symbolically created to portray Egypt itself.The temples were a symbolic impression of the universe,  a picture that has been created from stone to describe the first moment of creation, the pylons are the East and Western deserts, the gateway portals represent the path that the River Nile would flow though Egypt giving her life each and every day. Gradually the earth rises in the temple as you reach the mound of creation,  the Hypostyle halls that had huge columns portrayed as the lotus plants that came into being,  at dawn the lotus rises symbolically to worship the sun. At the going down of the sun each evening the Lotus plant submerges beneath the waters of the Nile. It encompasses all the forces of nature and lives in the four elements, its roots are bound to the earth, and its stem rises through water, it flourishes in the air and blooms in the sunlight.

Hatshepsuts Mortuary Temple was used during her lifetime and festivals were held here, In the Opet Festival recorded on the walls of the chapel, The God  Amun is carried by priests in his Barque, all the way down the avenue of sphinx that used to unite the two temples with his wife Mut and their son Khonsu to celebrate the Opet Festival at Luxor Temple which is an unusual temple as it wasnt a mortuary temple, or an earthly home of a God, it had been created  to celebrate the marriage of Amun and Mut, and to regenerate the kings power and Egypt just before the annual flood. 

The beautiful feast of the Valley was also recorded on Hatshepsuts barque chapel, it shows Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis 111 escorting the barque of Amun across the river to her mortuary temple that was in direct line with Karnack Temple.  Hatshepsut had been the royal wife to Tuthmosis 111 father and thereby was Tuthmosis  aunt and stepmother, after Hatshepsuts death he had all her cartouches  and her works vandalized, by doing this he was denying her an eternal life.

Theban Tomb 353 was the second tomb of Senenmut and is often known as the “secret tomb”. His gift for Astronomy is portrayed on the walls and ceilings.  The tomb consists of three chambers, the decorations in Chamber A consist of spells to help Senenmut’s spirit to pass successfully though the Underworld, and a number of depictions of Senenmut, his brother (Amenemhat), and his pharaoh, Hatshepsut. The ceiling is decorated with astronomical designs incorporating a calendar recording the lunar months, the constellations, and the planets. This tomb portrays the earliest known star map in Egypt.The astronomical ceiling  is divided into two sections, representing the northern and southern skies. Senenmouts tomb was vandalized during the reign of Thutmose III, possibly because he was  so well favoured by Hatshepsut. Tuthmosis 111 had Hatshepsuts gifts for the God Amun vandalized so as to eradicate her memory and deny her an afterlife, the ancient Egyptians believed if a persons name was spoken, it would offer them eternal life. Together Senenmout and His Pharaoh Hatshepsut created the most  amazing gifts for the God Amun.